May Swenson
American | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Utah State University | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = }} Anna Thilda May Swenson (May 28, 1913 - December 4, 1989) was an American poet and playwright, considered to be among the most important and original poets of the 20th century by critic Harold Bloom.http://www.bostonreview.net/BR23.2/bloom.html Life Swenson was born in Logan, Utah, the earliest child of Margaret and Dan Arthur Swenson. She grew up as the eldest of 10 children in a Mormon household where Swedish was spoken regularly and English was a second language. Swenson attended Utah State University in Logan in the class of 1934, where she earned a bachelor's degree. In 1936 Swenson worked as an editor and ghostwriter for a man called "Plat," who became her boyfriend. "I think I should like to have a son by Plat," she wrote in her diary, "but I would not like to be married to any man, but only be myself." May Swenson: A Poet's Life in Photos by R. R. Knudson & Suzzane Bigelow with a foreword by Richard Wilbur, Utah State University Press, 1996, ISBN 00-87421-218-9, page 39. She taught poetry as poet in residence at Bryn Mawr, the University of North Carolina, the University of California at Riverside, Purdue University and Utah State University. From 1959 to 1966 she worked as an editor at New Directions publishers. Swenson left New Directions in 1966 in an effort to focus completely on her own writing.Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More - May Swenson She also served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1980 until her death in 1989. Her poems were published in ''Antaeus'', ''Atlantic Monthly'', Carleton Miscellany, The Nation, The New Yorker, Paris Review, Saturday Review, Parnassus and ''Poetry''. Her poem "Question" was also published in Stephenie Meyer's book The Host. Much of her later poetry was devoted to children (such as the collection Iconographs, 1970). She also translated the work of contemporary Swedish poets, including the selected poems of Tomas Tranströmer. She died in Bethany Beach, Delaware. Writing Swenson's work shows strong use of imagery and of eroticism. She continually questions existence, and writes much on the topic of love. Her love poems concerned "human nature, the natural world, geography, and invention. They are poems of intense love between women, written at a time when that genre was rare in poetry" (Schulman). Although she did not go out of her way to make known her lesbian sexual identity, she also did not hide it. In her career she has turned down publication offers to use her poetry in a compilation of lesbian writing, yet she did agree in one case, which she explained as a tasteful collection she did not mind contributing to. Her poetry collection The Complete Love Poems of May Swenson focused mostly on poems in which sexual imagery is especially abundant. One example, the poem "In the Yard" reads: ::You are, so yummy, brought some fruit. Split me an apple. We'll get red, white halves each, our juice on the Indian spread. (Nature 94) Swenson's style is described as rhythmic. Her creative style merges in her writing with her interest in plant and animal behavior with works such as "The Cross Spider". As well as natural themes, some of her work focuses on scientific research, for example the exploration of space. Fascinated by perception, much of Swenson's work contains key themes of how this human perception can be found in landscapes and wider contexts. One source comments that her use of nature and sexuality are not used separately, but that nature is something we are all part of, and in that commonality we share energy derived from sexuality. Recognition Working with the Barney, Utah State University (USU) has created the "May Swenson Project". Supported by students and teachers, it has publicized Swenson's work at USU, as well as her influence across the nation. In her name, USU has dedicated a May Swenson room in the English Department and another in the USU Merrill-Cazier Library. Funds are being sought to establish an endowed chair in Swenson's name. The May Swenson Poetry Award, sponsored by Utah State University Press, is a competitive prize granted annually to an outstanding collection of poetry in English. Open to published and unpublished writers, with no limitation on subject, the competition honors May Swenson as one of America's most vital and provocative poets of the twentieth century. Judges for the competition have included Mary Oliver, Maxine Kumin, John Hollander, Mark Doty, Alice Quinn, Harold Bloom, Garrison Keillor, and others from the first tier of American letters.http://www.usu.edu/usupress/poetry_award/ Awards *American Introductions Prize in 1955 *William Rose Benet Prize of the Poetry Society of America in 1959 *Longview Foundation Award in 1959 *National Institute of Arts and Letters Award in 1960 *Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in 1967 *Lucy Martin Donnelly Award of Bryn Mawr College in 1968 *Shelley Poetry Award in 1968 *Guggenheim fellowship in 1959, *Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship in 1960 *Ford Foundation grant in 1964 *Bollingen Prize for poetry in 1981 *MacArthur Fellowship in 1987. Publications Poetry *''Another Animal: Poems''. New York: Scribner, 1954. *''The wave the flame the cloud and the leopard speak to the mind: Fountain piece, the engagement''. New York: New Directions, 1957. *''A Cage of Spines''. New York: Rinehart, 1958. *''To Mix with Time: New and selected poems''. New York: Scribner, 1963. *''Half Sun, Half Sleep: New poems'' (includes translations of six Swedish poets). New York: Scribner, 1967. *''Iconographs: Poems'' . New York: Scribner, 1970. *''New and Selected Things Taking Place''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1978. *''In Other Words: New poems''. New York: Knopf, 1987. *''The Love Poems of May Swenson''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. *''Nature: Poems old and new''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. *''The Snow Geese at Jamaica Bay''. Saint Louis, MO: Washington University, 1994. *''The Centaur'' (illustrated by Barry Moser). New York: Macmillan, 1994; Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. 2007. *''May Out West: Poems of May Swenson''. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1996. *''Dear Elizabeth: Five poems and three letters to Elizabeth Bishop'' (afterword by Kirstin Hotelling Zona). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2000. *''The Complete Love Poems of May Swenson''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. *''Collected Poems'' (edited by Langdon Hammer). New York: Library of America, 2013. Non-fiction *Made with Words (edited by Gardner McFall). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997. Juvenile *''Poems to Solve'' (for young adults). New York: Scribner, 1966. *''More Poems to Solve''. New York: Scribner, 1971. *The Guess and Spell Coloring Book (illustrated by Lise Gladstone). New York: Scribner, 1976. *''The Complete Poems to Solve'' (illustrated by Christy Hale). New York: Macmillan, 1993. Translated *Tomas Tranströmer, Windows and Stones, Selected poems '' (translated with Leif Sjoberg)). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972. Edited *''American Sports Poems (selected with R.R. Knudson). New York: Orchard Books, 1988. *''New Voices: Sselected university & college prize-winning poems 1979-1983''. New York: Academy of American Poets, 1984. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:May Swenson, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 15, 2015. Play productions *"The Floor" (1-act play), originally produced under the program title Doubles and Opposites in New York at American Place Theater, May 11, 1966, on a triple bill with "23 Pat O'Brien Movies," by Bruce Jay Friedman, and "Miss Pete," by Andrew Glaze.May Swenson 1913-1989, Poetry Foundation. Web, Dec. 10, 2012. Audio / video *''The Poetry and Voice of May Swenson'' (LP). New York: Caedmon, 1976. See also *LGBT poets *List of U.S. poets References Fonds *May Swenson Papers at Washington University in St. Louis Notes External links ;Poems *May Swenson 1913-1989 at Poetry Out Loud (2 poems) *May Swenson b. 1913 at the Poetry Foundation *May Swenson profile & 10 poems at the Academy of American Poets *posthumously published poems *May Swenson at PoemHunter (25 poems) ;Audio / video *May Swenson poems at YouTube ;Books *May Swenson at Amazon.com * ;About *May Swenson *May Swenson in the Encyclopædia Britannica Category:1913 births Category:1989 deaths Category:American Latter Day Saints Category:American poets Category:20th-century poets Category:LGBT Christians Category:Lesbian writers Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Writers from Utah Category:Utah State University alumni Category:Utah State University faculty Category:20th-century women writers Category:American women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets Category:LGBT poets